Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mutlaq, member of the Board of Senior Ulema and Royal Court Adviser, has signed up as an organ donor in a move to end the debate over organ donation permissibility in Islam.
Al-Mutlaq attended a symposium on organ donation organized by the Specialist Hospital in Riyadh. Currently, three to four organ transplant operations are conducted daily.
Kidney donations from non-relatives increased by 10 percent, which resulted in 73 more donation cases last year, while liver transplants increased by the same percentage, roughly equivalent to 30 more operations, said Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, supervisor general of the Prince Fahad bin Salman Charity Association for Renal Failure Patients Care (Kellana) who attended the event.
Prince Abdulaziz said that in the last 30 years, more than 7,000 people had kidney transplants and more than 1,000 had liver transplants. There were 94 reported lung transplants, 228 heart transplants, 663 cornea transplants and 19 pancreas transplant operations in the same period.
Sheikh Saleh bin Humaid, member of the Board of Senior Ulemas and imam of the Grand Mosque, said that organ donation permissibility is decided in terms of Shariah, although it is crucial to be sure that the prospective donor is pronounced brain dead, which is an issue that still needs more research.